I lived in Phuket, Thailand for three weeks. I ran into a little girl a few times while ministering on Bangla Road. Dainty, little, beautiful girl. Her hair light as a feather, pulled back, with shorter hair falling out of her pony tale. Thin legs and arms, tanned like most people get when they lay out on the beach for days. She had big brown eyes and a small dimple in her left cheek. She came up to me, holding out a wreath of flowers, all purple and white. She yelled out at me against the loud bar music, honking cars and drunk people partying she said, please buy, please buy!
Her big brown eyes looking up at me, I couldn't contain myself, I needed to know why this little girl was out at midnight selling flowers in the red light district. Who was she working for, where are her parents, where does she sleep?
My friends caught up to me and told me that there were two men watching me talk to this little girl. I Frantically turned around looking for the ones responsible for this young girl working like a grown women. I made eye contact with them and instantly became angry. Everything inside of me wanted to take this little girl in my arms and run, instead, I clinched my fists and grew a knot in my throat.
The men watched me, watching them. There eyes followed my every move. The little girl looked at the men; her owners and she began to cry. It wasn't a cry a girl her age would normally express, it was more of a cry that I've seen on a thirty year old woman who had just lost her new born child, thats exactly how this little girl cried. A painful silent, cry, she knew she could not let the tears flow down her face, she held them in. She walked away from me, into the crowd of drunk men, strip clubs and prostitutes. She walked so fast I lost sight of her. Friends had to convince me that It was dangerous and that I probably wouldn't find her in such a busy street. Feeling hopeless and ashamed for not holding her in my arms and running as fast as I could, I walked away, broken, piste off!
Later on that week, walking through the crowd of tourists in the red light district after a long night of ministering in the bars and loving the "bar girls", I saw her again! Little girl with the big brown eyes and flowers in her hand. She walked right in front of me, before I could get my thoughts together before I could even reach out for her, she was lost, into the crowd of drunk men, tourists looking for sex, women dancing on poles, little brown eyed girl was lost into the crowd, again.
You! You, reader. I could only do so much. Missionaries all over the world could only get so far, there are few of us out here. We need more people to move. More equipped people to shake this planet, to make this earth look like heaven the way it was intended to be. Yes, you could send your money, yes you could pray, but your hands and feet are what is needed out here, your heart and love is what is foreign out here. Little brown eyed girl from Thailand is still out, lost in the crowd. Will you move for her?
